OKC Thunder (9-7, 3-5 road) vs. Dallas Mavericks (11-3, 5-1 home)

I don’t know about you, but I’m still going to watch tonight. I haven’t given up. As long as the Thunder still have life, I’m not going to count them out. They’ve built a reputation on resiliency and now they have a chance to cement it.

No doubt the Thunder have a tall mountain to climb. Not just in terms of winning this series, but even winning tonight. Bouncing back from the devastation of Game 4 will be one of the toughest things they’ve had to do in their young careers. And with the way their body language looked at the end of it, things seem gloomy.

It definitely feels like this series is over. That’s probably because it sort of is. The way the Thunder fell on their face in Game 4 and gave away a win basically sealed their fate. And of course only four percent of teams (two out of 200 or something like that) have ever come back from 3-1. Now not only do they have to try and recover from that but they have to do it on the road. Chances aren’t good for them.

However, the other humiliating loss the team suffered, they bounced back from. After a Game 3 loss to Memphis where the Thunder blew a 10-point lead late, OKC bounced back and won a crucial Game 4. Their backs are to the wall even more and they’re even more heartbroken now. Do they have anything left? That’s the question.

It’s about one game at a time. Scott Brooks always preaches that the next game is the most important one. Well this next game is really important. Try and win tonight and then worry about the next one later. You can’t win Game 4 tonight. You can’t win two games tonight. You’ve got to accept your position, try and win this one and then move on to the next. It’s not impossible.

I do keep coming back though to whether or not this young Thunder team is ready to say they’ve had enough. They looked both mentally and physically exhausted after Game 4. These playoffs have been a long haul for them. Playing 20 extra games is definitely new to them.

But Kevin Durant is a player that has a ton of pride. Same with Russell Westbrook. The Mavs have a serious chokehold on the series and it’s just a matter of closing out a young, rattled team at home. No problem, right?

Thing is, these Thunder aren’t quitters. At least I hope they aren’t. And the temptation for the Mavericks could be to relax and try and coast out of the Western Finals. But mess around and give this one away at home and the series will return to Oklahoma City where you can be sure the Thunder don’t want to embarrass themselves again in front of their home crowd. The Mavs could play with some fire here if they don’t take care of business.

I’m talking myself into it, but if I were the Mavs, I’d advise not giving the Thunder a chance. Because if they do, they’re going to get a very angry team in Game 6 ready to prove a point. And of course in a Game 7, who knows.

Don’t quit yet Thunder. Fight one more time. Come on, give us one more thrill. Win this one and let’s see what happens.

justin :@James ChurchPutting that lineup in the game ‘to score’ didn’t work because the team didn’t have a manual. They didn’t know what to do, who should get the ball, who should be moving. They scored what, eight points in the last six minutes?Again, a well coached team like Dallas is going to make adjustments to counter what it is that is working against them. Brooks got 12 points out of the small ball in the first six minutes of the fourth quarter, he should have stopped right there because Tyson Chandler and Jason Kidd came back in, and they changed up how they were defending. OKC offense looked confused, and unsure of how to attack and who should attack.And on the other end, Dallas was taking advantage of their mis-matches at the same time. Playoff basketball is a chess game. And twice in a row Carlisle wiped the floor with Brooks, who found one strategy and just stuck with it no matter what the opposition did. We hate this kind of behavior when our own players do it – Westbrook drives into the lane with five guys defending him we call it Bad Russ. This is Bad Brooks. Not adapting in the game to what the other team was doing, and only playing his cards, not his opponents’ as well.

Yeah, which is still a whole lot better than last game. With KD off you wanted to cripple the offense further and leave it all on Russ and Harden to fight through the bigs of the Mavs by bringing in Ibaka or Perk?Yeah they changed the defense effectively. Okay. But I don’t remember Chandler putting buckets on our head. Or Kidd playing any better than he was before. I remember a Dirk 3 of a Russ no call (I think), and KD forgetting to box our Marion, who he’d been on for a lot of this series. KD is a 7 footer. Collison is big. Russ is a rebounding guard. They had rebounding power.Brooks made a decision and it’s not like I can say it is definitively correct. It probably isn’t. But it wasn’t a terrible decision by any means, it wasn’t a bad decision either. I commend him for having the balls to try and find some late game offense. If KD is going, it’s a different story. But an offense that has only Russ and Harden trying to do it all is going to lead to the same story. If Chandler’s foul on Russ is called, we’re having a completely different conversation.

I really dont know what game you were seeing @james church. Maynor was ineffective. he couldnt stay in front of barea, went 2 for 6 and took the biggest shot of the game himself when he hasn't taken one like that all season! Ibaka picked up some ticky tack fouls, however, he still would have helped us immensely at the eight minute mark. you put him on when barea off, tell him to play his heart out as long as he can and live with the results. U are defending a lineup that got outscored and lost again. kd, russ, harden, nick ibaka best lineup this series, and harden would have involved the two bigs. Obviously the small lineup did not work. U r a little delusional to say it was a good decision by scotty brooks to stick with it. He called good plays in game 4 too?

@Jimmy HardenYeah I know not a perfect comparison since Dwight is hands down the best at his position and Adelman is just one of the better, but I did what I could with what was out there off the top of my head lol

justin :@James ChurchIt’s a bad decision when half the board here, the announcers on TV, almost all of the opposing fans I’ve seen were predicting what would happen. JVG was practically begging Brooks to put another big into the game late after Maynor was having trouble doing anything on either end.

It's a bad decision when half the board here, the announcers on TV, almost all of the opposing fans I've seen were predicting what would happen. JVG was practically begging Brooks to put another big into the game late after Maynor was having trouble doing anything on either end.

Im oddly not as sad as I thought Id be. im kind of just wallowing in the glow of making it to the WCF. Many more ups then down this year. I know next year will be even better and thats like money going into my bank.

This. Thank you for putting this into perspective. I dont know if the correlation is exactly equal, but I like the way you are thinking.

Brooks reminds me of my High School BBall coach. We won four state championships in a row, at one time had a top ten team in the nation and everyone gave our coach all the credit, said he was a great coach. Thing was, the players on the team knew he was a complete moron, we won in spite of him. I know Brooks isnt a complete moron, but I do think our talent is carrying him a bit.

justin :@James ChurchPutting that lineup in the game ‘to score’ didn’t work because the team didn’t have a manual. They didn’t know what to do, who should get the ball, who should be moving. They scored what, eight points in the last six minutes?Again, a well coached team like Dallas is going to make adjustments to counter what it is that is working against them. Brooks got 12 points out of the small ball in the first six minutes of the fourth quarter, he should have stopped right there because Tyson Chandler and Jason Kidd came back in, and they changed up how they were defending. OKC offense looked confused, and unsure of how to attack and who should attack.And on the other end, Dallas was taking advantage of their mis-matches at the same time. Playoff basketball is a chess game. And twice in a row Carlisle wiped the floor with Brooks, who found one strategy and just stuck with it no matter what the opposition did. We hate this kind of behavior when our own players do it – Westbrook drives into the lane with five guys defending him we call it Bad Russ. This is Bad Brooks. Not adapting in the game to what the other team was doing, and only playing his cards, not his opponents’ as well.

Yeah, which is still a whole lot better than last game. With KD off you wanted to cripple the offense further and leave it all on Russ and Harden to fight through the bigs of the Mavs by bringing in Ibaka or Perk?

Yeah they changed the defense effectively. Okay. But I don't remember Chandler putting buckets on our head. Or Kidd playing any better than he was before. I remember a Dirk 3 of a Russ no call (I think), and KD forgetting to box our Marion, who he'd been on for a lot of this series. KD is a 7 footer. Collison is big. Russ is a rebounding guard. They had rebounding power.

Brooks made a decision and it's not like I can say it is definitively correct. It probably isn't. But it wasn't a terrible decision by any means, it wasn't a bad decision either. I commend him for having the balls to try and find some late game offense. If KD is going, it's a different story. But an offense that has only Russ and Harden trying to do it all is going to lead to the same story. If Chandler's foul on Russ is called, we're having a completely different conversation.

One thing I don't get is why does it matter if Brooks changes or not? Let's put this in a player's perspective. Say Dwight Howard (Adelman- a piece that would greatly help) were to become an unrestricted free agent and we could afford him, but we would have to cut Cole Aldrich to do so (Brooks- a piece with "potential" but has not demonstrated an ability to be good yet), how many of you saying "keep Brooks he'll get better" would keep Aldrich, especially if, as with coaching, age wasn't really a factor? It may sound cruel and heartless but why give a guy a chance who hasn't proven he's what we need and has actually showed that he's NOT what we need (not saying Aldrich has done the latter), a chance to POSSIBLY become what we need, when what we need is sitting in front of our faces?

The worst part of the night was seeing Brooks, cheeks, and the other assistant standing there talking. Brooks looked he was just another assistant coach and not the head coach. He looked he was taking instructions and asking for help, not knowing what to do. Love this team and to see that just sucked. Mavs are a great team and executed down the stretch in two comebacks but we got outcoached big time. The next time I see Eric freaking maynor wave off a whole team so he can take a real important shot it better be for a different team.

Levity, my friend. I try to bring a little levity to my understandibly tense Thunder buddies. This was a season worth celebrating.And no, I don’t really think we need another project big-man.

Here here. Not teh outcome that I wanted, but theres no team that I come I rather root for or have more fun rooting for. we made it to the conference finals. We led many, many minutes during this series. Dallas had enough experience to never let us get close, byt we always were. Im already excited for teh off season and next year when KD comes back with ten pounds of muscle, a post game and ahead fake. he passing seeming to make ahuge leap during the offseason, all of our players will be much wiser next year and I cant wait.

BrandonG :Guys, calm down. It was an awesome season, and losing a WCF 4-1 that you should be leading 3-2 going back home for game 6 is tough, but imagine if Bill Gates bought the Thunder tomorrow and moved them to Seattle. Put yourselves in those shoes and show some gratitude, appreciate what you’ve got.

That would first require league approval of the sale, and majority vote to move the franchise by the NBA owners. Gates just can't just buy and move a team. Nobody can.

Jimbo Slice :Mo Cheeks has 2 winning seasons out of 8 as a head coach. Not only that, he managed to miss the playoffs and have a losing team with an Iverson led Sixers squad that was far more talented than the same Iverson-led squad that made the Finals just a few seasons before that.It’s not like bringing in a new coach would be some extreme shake up of the system. We don’t have a system right now, so bringing in a new head man wouldn’t be a change of system, it would just be a system period.

@JoelThats the thing though. In basketball you have to strike while the iron is hot. Who knows how long we have this team. KD could blow out his knee, or Russ could not sign up again. Im not saying we should just fire Brooks and hope we can find a better coach. Im saying if there is a better coach who would be willing to come, we should go for it. Brooks has showed for the last two seasons he is too stubborn to change and adapt his lineups (ie, Green, Kristic, Thabo). Why will he change next year?

Guys, calm down. It was an awesome season, and losing a WCF 4-1 that you should be leading 3-2 going back home for game 6 is tough, but imagine if Bill Gates bought the Thunder tomorrow and moved them to Seattle. Put yourselves in those shoes and show some gratitude, appreciate what you've got.

Man, KD just nailed a reporter's attempt to fawn over Dirk. "Kevin, you just got eliminated, but Dirk's been eliminated in the first round three of the last four years but now he is in the finals. Can you talk about your feelings on his success?"

Mo Cheeks has 2 winning seasons out of 8 as a head coach. Not only that, he managed to miss the playoffs and have a losing team with an Iverson led Sixers squad that was far more talented than the same Iverson-led squad that made the Finals just a few seasons before that.

It's not like bringing in a new coach would be some extreme shake up of the system. We don't have a system right now, so bringing in a new head man wouldn't be a change of system, it would just be a system period.

It doesn't bro. Coach Scotty needs to learn this offseason as well. He's never been in this situation before either. Just like all the players. He'll either learn, or his time will be shorter than he thought. Does that mean I wanna fire Scott Brooks right now, this very second like all these hotheads are calling for? No.

Putting that lineup in the game 'to score' didn't work because the team didn't have a manual. They didn't know what to do, who should get the ball, who should be moving. They scored what, eight points in the last six minutes?

Again, a well coached team like Dallas is going to make adjustments to counter what it is that is working against them. Brooks got 12 points out of the small ball in the first six minutes of the fourth quarter, he should have stopped right there because Tyson Chandler and Jason Kidd came back in, and they changed up how they were defending. OKC offense looked confused, and unsure of how to attack and who should attack.

And on the other end, Dallas was taking advantage of their mis-matches at the same time. Playoff basketball is a chess game. And twice in a row Carlisle wiped the floor with Brooks, who found one strategy and just stuck with it no matter what the opposition did. We hate this kind of behavior when our own players do it - Westbrook drives into the lane with five guys defending him we call it Bad Russ. This is Bad Brooks. Not adapting in the game to what the other team was doing, and only playing his cards, not his opponents' as well.

When Sawn MArion comes in for JJ Barea, Maynor should have come out immediately. I understand, and even really like, the lineup of Maynor and Russ together w KD at the 4 when they have Kidd and JJ together. When Terry is at the 2, Marion at the 3 AND Chandler at the 5, how can we still be small? I know that Brooks is a much better, smarter basketball mind than I could dream of being, but how does that lineup make sense?

What did you guys see in this series that you can build on? I saw a little: James Harden is going to be a beast! If the late game situation were better the Thunder would have been leading the serious 3-2 (ehh kinda a downer but ehh...). I think they were the youngest team to make it to the WCF? (any help with that stat.)

blackngoldthunder :Why adelman why not stay in house and hire Maurice Cheeks If we do go that route

Adelman knows how to run an NBA offense. He runs the “corner” offense and it can be a thing of beauty. I watch the Rockets movement on offense off the ball, then I watch ours and it’s like night and day. Their half-court offense is so much better than ours. Imagine what he could do with the talent on this team.Adelman got screwed in Houston. Yao missed the last two seasons and still, he made them respectable.

I respect that. But I just heard someone say that he was better with veterans opposed to young guys that was my only gripe with adelmen nothing against him as a coach

Last game was on Brooks, he monumentally failed by crippling the lineup offensively. And now y'all are complaining that he left an offensively minded group in to try and score late. You bring Serge in, you've got one timeout so if they score, he's on the court and you have two non-factor in Collison and Serge, couple with Serge playing awful and the likelihood of him fouling, considering he played so little through 3 quarters due to foul trouble.

Combine that with an awful game by KD, you need that lineup Brooks put in to try and score or you risk what happened last game. We should be focusing on the fact that Russ was willing to let Harden run the offense, even at the end Harden was getting touches.

That they didn't run PNR more down the stretch is inexcusable. Brooks should have pulled KD and RUss over and told them PNR was what we were doing. It was literally the only thing that consistently worked tonight.

blackngoldthunder :Why adelman why not stay in house and hire Maurice Cheeks If we do go that route

Adelman knows how to run an NBA offense. He runs the "corner" offense and it can be a thing of beauty. I watch the Rockets movement on offense off the ball, then I watch ours and it's like night and day. Their half-court offense is so much better than ours. Imagine what he could do with the talent on this team.

Adelman got screwed in Houston. Yao missed the last two seasons and still, he made them respectable.